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If you can’t beat’em, why not buy’em? Biotechnology giant Monsanto has had the collective finger pointed at it for a lot of things, including the apparent collapse of the bee population. So instead of fighting off skeptics, it just decided to buy out Beeologics, a major international research firm devoted to studying and protecting bees.

Natural News says Beeologics made the announcement that as of September 28, 2011, the company is part of Monsanto. Beeologics was devoted to studying colony collapse disorder (CCD) and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) to try and find out how to intervene and stop bees from dying off.

Critics of Monsanto are worried that it will avoid CCD and IAPV, since they’re big on genetically modified organisms, and will deny any link between the bee deaths and the GMO technologies and chemicals it employs.

“Monsanto will use the base technology from Beeologics as a part of its continuing discovery and development pipeline,” says the announcement. “Biological products will continue to play an increasingly important role in supporting the sustainability of many agricultural systems.”

Which could mean using more chemicals to fight the bee collapse, when chemicals may have had a part in the deaths in the first place. Poor bees. We like our honey.